Tom and Jerry: The Movie
| starring = | music = Henry Mancini | studio = Turner Pictures Film Roman LIVE Entertainment WMG Film GmbH Telefilm Essen GmbH | distributor = Miramax Films (original) Warner Bros. Pictures (current) | released = | runtime = 84 minutes | country = United States Germany | language = English | budget = $3.5 million | gross = $3.6 million }}Tom and Jerry: The Movie'' is an American 1992 animated musical buddy comedy film starring the seven-time Academy Award-winning cat-and-mouse duo Tom and Jerry. Produced and directed by Phil Roman, the film stars the voices of Richard Kind, Dana Hill (in her final film role before her death on July 15, 1996), Anndi McAfee, Tony Jay, Rip Taylor, Henry Gibson, Michael Bell, Ed Gilbert, Charles Nelson Reilly, Ernest Borgnine, David L. Lander, Howard Morris and Charlotte Rae. Produced by Turner Pictures and Roman's Film Roman, it is the first theatrical feature-length animated film featuring the cat-and-mouse pair as well as their return to the big screen after 25 years. Although largely mute in the original cartoons, the duo talked extensively in this film. Joseph Barbera, co-founder of Hanna-Barbera and co-creator of Tom and Jerry, served as creative consultant for the film. The film tells the story about Tom and Jerry, who become homeless after their home was wrecked; they meet and help a little girl escape from her child-hating and abusive aunt in order to find her lost (and presumed dead) father. After having its world premiere in Germany on October 1, 1992, Tom and Jerry: The Movie was released by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment, MGM/UA Distribution Co., Miramax Films and LIVE Entertainment on July 30, 1993 in the United States. The film was a box office bomb, earning only $3.6 million worldwide against a budget of $3.5 million, and received predominantly negative reviews from fans and film critics for the film's use of dialogue for the characters, musical numbers, sub-par voice acting, dark content, lack of focus on the title characters and slapstick and similarities to Disney's The Little Mermaid and The Rescuers, although the animation was praised. Plot While moving to a new house with their owners, Tom and Jerry get into a chase as usual, resulting in Tom nailing Jerry inside his mouse hole with floorboards. Unfortunately, he misses the moving van and is forced to stay in the house after angering a nearby bulldog. The house is then demolished the next morning with Tom going back inside to rescue Jerry, leaving them both homeless. Wandering through the city for shelter, the duo meet a dog named Puggsy and his flea friend named Frankie, and upon introducing themselves, speak normally for the first time. After a brief argument, Puggsy and Frankie persuade the duo to be friends. While finding food from some nearby bins for a feast, Puggsy and Frankie are captured by two dogcatchers while Tom ends up in a tussle with some mean singing alley cats, until Jerry saves Tom by opening a sewer pipe and tricking the alley cats into it. Later, the duo cross paths with an 8-year-old girl named Robyn Starling, who has run away from home since her mother died when she was still a baby and her father was killed in a recent avalanche while on a mountain-climbing expedition; she has been living with her evil guardian "Aunt" Pristine Figg, (who has proceeded to steal the family fortune), her sleazy and scheming lawyer and boyfriend Lickboot and her overweight pet dog Ferdinand, the latter requiring a skateboard to move around. Despite Robyn's misgivings, Tom and Jerry persuade her to return home. After Tom and Jerry end up in a massive food fight with Ferdinand and stumble across a telegram confirming that Robyn's father is still alive which Figg hides from Robyn, Figg sends them to an animal shelter run by Dr. Applecheek, who turns out to be a cruel animal kidnapper and the true employer of the two dogcatchers who caught Puggsy and Frankie. Reuniting with Puggsy and Frankie in the cells, Tom and Jerry plan an escape, free all of Applecheek's captured animals (among them Droopy) and rush to tell Robyn the news. Elated, Robyn becomes determined to find her father in Tibet and they escape the city on a raft in the river but the raft is suddenly struck by a ship and they end up separated. Figg places a $1 million bounty on Robyn (which she has no intent on paying), while Robyn's father meanwhile is alerted of his daughter's situation and flies back to America to find her. Robyn is then found by Captain Kiddie, the owner of a failing amusement park to which he houses her until seeing an advertisement for the reward on a milk cardboard with the help of his parrot puppet Squawk, whereupon he traps Robyn on a ferris wheel and contacts Figg. Tom and Jerry then find Robyn and they flee in a paddle steamer as Figg, Lickboot, Applecheek and the dogcatchers arrive, resulting in a long chase that ends with the dogcatchers ending up trapped in the ferris wheel and Kiddie and Applecheek being left stranded in the river. Tom, Jerry and Robyn arrive at Robyn's summer cabin built by her father, but Figg, Lickboot and Ferdinand have arrived there first. In the ensuing scuffle, a lantern is accidentally knocked over, starting a fire that engulfs the whole cabin. Figg, Lickboot and Ferdinand flee the burning cabin with Figg knocking the door down, but Lickboot inadvertently stumbles on Ferdinand's skateboard to which they fall on Kiddie's paddle steamer that goes out of control after Ferdinand inadvertently moves the ship's rudder, sailing the trio away. Tom and Jerry manage to get Robyn to the roof just as her father arrives in his helicopter. Robyn is rescued, but her father is unable to reach Tom and Jerry in time before the cabin collapses. Fortunately, the duo barely survive. In the aftermath, Robyn is finally reunited with her father and takes Tom and Jerry in as her pets. Just when it appears that they have found friendship however, Tom and Jerry resume their antics once Robyn and her father are out of sight, to which the film ends as the duo chase each other once again. Voice cast * Richard Kind as Tom * Dana Hill as Jerry * Anndi McAfee as Robyn Starling * Charlotte Rae as Aunt Pristine Figg * Tony Jay as Lickboot * Michael Bell as Ferdinand * Henry Gibson as Dr. J. Sweetface Applecheek * Ernest Borgnine as Puggsy * Ed Gilbert as Robyn's Father * David Lander as Frankie Da Flea * Rip Taylor as Captain Kiddie * Howard Morris as Squawk * Charles Nelson Reilly as Straycatcher #1 * Sydney Lassick as Straycatcher #2 * Don Messick as Droopy * Tino Insana as The Patrolman * B. J. Ward as Tom's Owner * Greg Burson as Moving Man * Raymond McLeod as Bulldog * Jim Cummings as Alleycat #1 * Mitchell D. Moore as Alleycat #2 * Scott Wojahn as Alleycat #3 * Additional Voices: Mary Kay Bergman, Kath Soucie, Frank Welker Music Musical numbers # "Friends to the End" – Pugsy, Frankie, Tom, Jerry # "What Do We Care? (The Alley Cats' Song)" – The Alley Cats # "Money Is Such a Beautiful Word" – Aunt Figg, Lickboot # "God's Little Creatures" – Dr. Applecheek # "I Miss You (Robyn's Song)" – Robyn # "I've Done It All" – Captain Kiddie, Squawk # "Finale (Friends to the End)" # "I Miss You" (End Title) – Stephanie Mills # "All in How Much We Give" – Stephanie Mills Soundtrack A soundtrack album was released by MCA Records in 1992 and included both the songs (music written by Henry Mancini with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) and score from the film, composed by Henry Mancini. The end credits pop song All in How Much We Give was written by Jody Davidson. Reception Critical response Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 17% approval rating based on 12 reviews with an average rating of 3/10. Joseph McBride of Variety gave the film a negative review, saying that "Tom and Jerry Talk won't go down in film history as a slogan to rival Garbo Talks." Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times panned the film's songs and Phil Roman's direction. Hal Hinson of The Washington Post criticized the dialogue between the cat and mouse and said that the voices "don't fit the characters". Hinson also complained that the musical numbers are "as forgettable as they are intolerably bouncy and upbeat". Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert awarded the film "Two Thumbs Down" on their show Siskel & Ebert. Although they praised the animation, look and the truthful art design of the animated shorts, they neither thought that it was a good idea to give dialogue to the two characters, giving lack of more slapstick action from past cartoons and that the story was silly, even considering that the character of Robyn Starling takes most of the attention than the cat and mouse themselves. Conversely, Vincent Canby of The New York Times was more positive in his review, praising Mancini's score and the musical numbers to which he later went on to say that "characters of Tom and Jerry have charm." Box office Tom and Jerry: The Movie opened theatrically on July 30, 1993 in the United States and Canada alongside Rising Sun, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and So I Married an Axe Murderer. Ranking number fourteen at the North American box office, the film grossed $3,560,469 worldwide, making it financially unsuccessful. Video games * A video game based on the film was released for the Sega Master System in 1992 and Sega Game Gear in 1993, followed by a handheld game by Tiger Electronics released the same year. * A video game based on the film of same name titled Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics was released for Game Boy and Sega Genesis on 1993 by Hi-Tech Expressions and Altron. Home media The film was released on VHS and Laserdisc on October 26, 1993 by Family Home Entertainment. Other VHS releases of the film was released by MGM/UA Home Video. The VHS release of the film was reissued on March 2, 1999 and was released on DVD on March 26, 2002 by Warner Home Video although despite receiving a UK VHS release from First Independent Films, no Region 2 DVD release is as of yet currently available. References Sources * Beck, Jerry (2005). The Animated Movie Guide. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. . pp. 284–285. 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